The Morning: Andrew Cuomo’s political future

Allies of the governor are calling on him to resign.

View in browser|nytimes.com August 5, 2021 By Ian Prasad Philbrick and Tom Wright-Piersanti Good morning. Allies of Andrew Cuomo are calling on him to resign. Here's why he might stay in office — and what happens next. Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York in May.Spencer Platt/Getty Images Andrew Cuomo's political future The pressure on Gov. Andrew Cuomo to resign is building. President Biden, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and every member of New York's Democratic congressional delegation have said the governor should step down, after an investigation by the state attorney general concluded that Cuomo had sexually harassed almost a dozen women. Three prosecutors, in Manhattan, Nassau County and Westchester County, also announced that they had opened separate criminal investigations into his conduct. Jay Jacobs, the head of the state Democratic Party — and once one of Cuomo's closest allies — said yesterday that Cuomo's removal from office was "inevitable." And a poll from Marist College found that 59 percent of New Yorkers think Cuomo should resign or be impeached. But Cuomo, who denies that his conduct was inappropriate, has resisted the calls to leave office. The power of partisanship Early in the pandemic, Cuomo's public appearances turned him into one of the Democratic Party's most celebrated national figures. His approval ratings fell this year following the revelation that his administration had undercounted nursing home Covid deaths and after the harassment allegations that led to the attorney general's investigation. But more New Yorkers still thought Cuomo should keep his job than resign, polls showed. Yesterday's Marist poll suggests that may be changing. Cuomo has never been more vulnerable in his decades in public office, said our colleague Katie Glueck, who covers New York politics. But he may also have reasons to think he can hold on, given the unpredictable nature of the moment. "It is too early to gauge how the report is resonating with the public, and Cuomo is plainly betting that the good will he generated during the early days of the pandemic will help him survive now," Katie said. Some Democrats accused of misconduct in the #MeToo era have resigned under pressure from other members of their party. They include Al Franken, the former Minnesota senator, and Eric Schneiderman, New York's former attorney general. In Cuomo's case, sustained opposition from top Democrats could erode his support even further. "The partisan cues from President Biden on down are that Cuomo should step aside," Katie said. But partisanship also colors how voters view scandals, sometimes helping politicians keep supporters in their corner. Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia in 2019 bucked fellow elected Democrats' calls for him to resign after a blackface scandal, and his approval ratings in the state have since rebounded. And if Cuomo does choose to stay in office and seek re-election to a fourth term next year, it could fall to voters — and any potential Democratic primary challengers — to decide whether his governorship should end. Protestors outside Cuomo's Manhattan office yesterday.Desiree Rios for The New York Times The impeachment investigation The decision to serve out the rest of his term may not be up to Cuomo. The State Assembly, which Democrats control, said this week that it would speed up a wide-ranging impeachment investigation into the harassment allegations and the nursing home deaths. The investigation began in March, after multiple women publicly accused Cuomo. Some elected Democrats said they could no longer back him, but he retained enough support that the Assembly seemed unlikely to vote on impeachment anytime soon. "The Assembly's decision to open a broad investigation, instead of moving to immediately impeach him, basically bought Cuomo some time to hold on to power," Luis Ferré-Sadurní, who covers Albany for The Times, told us. After the release of the attorney general's findings this week, though, many lawmakers and others who stood by Cuomo in March retracted their support. The Assembly's decision to speed up its investigation could lead to impeachment articles as soon as September. "Cuomo has virtually no vocal allies these days. His inner circle has shrunk considerably. Top labor leaders have abandoned him," Katie told us. "After years of dominating New York politics, he finds himself almost totally alone." Impeachment in New York is similar to the process for impeaching U.S. presidents. The Assembly votes on impeachment with a simple majority, and the Senate holds a trial and votes on removal, with a two-thirds majority threshold. There are some differences, though: If Cuomo were impeached, he would have to give up the powers of his office during the trial. The Senate vote would also include the seven judges on the state's highest court. If Cuomo does leave office, Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, would replace him — becoming New York's first female governor. "The attorney general's investigation has documented repulsive and unlawful behavior," Hochul said on Tuesday. "No one is above the law." For more on Cuomo's future, listen to today's episode of "The Daily." THE LATEST NEWS The Virus The W.H.O. called for a moratorium on booster shots to help all countries vaccinate at least 10 percent of their populations. As Louisiana leads the U.S. in new cases, the crisis is driving more people in the state to get vaccinated. The Delta variant and the uncertainty over schools are keeping some parents from applying for jobs. China is grappling with its worst outbreak in a year. Israel reintroduced some restrictions. Here's how to show proof of vaccination in New York City. Tokyo Olympics The U.S. women's soccer team beat Australia, in what might have been the last major game for some of the its biggest stars.Doug Mills/The New York Times The U.S. women's soccer team won bronze. After beating Australia, the U.S. men's basketball team will play for the gold medal. The U.S. didn't reach the final in the men's 4x100-meter relay after bungling a baton transfer. Climate A resident in Kings Bay, Ga., surveying damage after Tropical Storm Elsa last month.Mass Communication 3Rd Class Aaron Xavier Saldana/U.S. Navy, via Associated Press This hurricane season will probably have more storms than usual, a government scientist said. Turkey is experiencing its worst forest fires in decades. In Greece, a wildfire burned dozens of homes. Other Big Stories Mexico is suing 10 gun companies in the U.S., accusing them of facilitating the flow of weapons to drug cartels. At least 10 people died in the crash of a packed van in South Texas. The authorities said the passengers were probably migrants. "I have no idea how we'll continue": Inside Lebanon's economic meltdown. Where's the $5,800 bottle of whiskey that Japan gave Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in 2019? Bill Gates called his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein "a huge mistake." Opinions Having a child with cancer shouldn't crush families financially, Andrew Kaczynski writes. Alexandra DeSanctis, Samuel Moyn and other writers and legal scholars share their ideas for amending the U.S. Constitution. MORNING READS It's easy to imagine something lurking in the bush when night falls in the mountains of the Wonnangatta Valley.Asanka Brendon Ratnayake Without a sound: The hikers vanished. These mountains contain answers to the mysteries. Political awakening: In Taiwan, young people look at Hong Kong and wonder: Are we next? Knickknacks: Tchotchkes are having a moment — on Instagram, at least. Advice from Wirecutter: Consider getting rechargeable batteries. Lives Lived: Almost half a century ago, Gilbert V. Levin conducted an experiment to determine whether there might be life in the soil of Mars — a possibility that scientists are now considering. He died at 97. ARTS AND IDEAS At soccer and table tennis, there was always a better seat available.Alexandra Garcia/The New York Times The empty Olympics One of the first things you'll notice at the Tokyo Games: empty stadiums. The organizers barred spectators from all venues in Tokyo to prevent Covid outbreaks. "For athletes who once envisioned themselves performing for hordes of buzzing fans, the hushed vibe has been a bummer," Andrew Keh wrote in The Times. Grunts echo through vacant arenas; the hum of cicadas provides a soundtrack for outdoor competitions. At one boxing match, Keh notes, the sounds of punches were accompanied by a noisy hallway door. "The atmosphere ain't really here," Britain's Caroline Dubois, one of the boxers, said afterward. But not everyone misses the roar of the crowd. For some lower-profile Olympics sports — like taekwondo and air rifle — empty seats are the norm, as Joshua Robinson and Andrew Beaton write in The Wall Street Journal. "If there were a full stadium," the Japanese archer Takaharu Furukawa said, "I would be more nervous and make a mistake." — Tom Wright-Piersanti, Morning editor PLAY, WATCH, EAT What to Cook David Malosh for The New York Times These summer veggies in spiced yogurt sauce are reminiscent of korma. What to Listen to Five minutes that will make you love Stravinsky. What to Read The "Saturday Night Live" star Cecily Strong shares a life touched by grief in her memoir. What to Watch A project by Lisa Loeb and a new production of "South Pacific": Here's the best theater to stream from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Now Time to Play The pangram from yesterday's Spelling Bee was likelihood. Here is today's puzzle — or you can play online. Here's today's Mini Crossword, and a clue: Cooking vessels (four letters). If you're in the mood to play more, find all our games here. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. P.S. The Times has eight million digital and print subscriptions. Thank you, readers. Here's today's print front page. "Sway" features Doug Parker of American Airlines. Claire Moses and Sanam Yar contributed to The Morning. You can reach the team at themorning@nytimes.com. Sign up here to get this newsletter in your inbox. Continue reading the main story Need help? Review our newsletter help page or contact us for assistance. You received this email because you signed up for The Morning newsletter from The New York Times, or as part of your New York Times account. To stop receiving these emails, unsubscribe or manage your email preferences. 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☕️ Good in the $HOOD

What the heck is going on with Robinhood's stock?

August 05, 2021 View Online | Sign Up TOGETHER WITH Good morning. Bear with us while we do the media company equivalent of putting a "My child is an honors student" bumper sticker on our car. Shoutout to Emerging Tech Brew for reaching 300k subscribers, Morning Brew's TikTok account for reaching 100k followers, and all the drones and ring lights broken along the way. MARKETS Nasdaq 14,780.53 +0.13% S&P 4,402.66 -0.46% Dow 34,792.67 -0.92% Bitcoin $39,799.31 +0.31% 10-Year 1.197% +1.3 bps GM $52.72 -8.91% *Stock data as of market close, cryptocurrency data as of 9:00pm ET. Here's what these numbers mean. Markets: Stocks fell as a report on private sector jobs came in weaker than expected (the much broader jobs report for July hits Friday). GM stock took a hit after whiffing on earnings, though it did introduce two new zero-emission vehicles to its portfolio.   Covid: The head of the WHO asked countries to stop administering booster shots until the end of September earliest to allow for lower-income countries to get their populations vaccinated. The known global caseload for Covid-19 passed 200 million people yesterday.  STOCKS A Meme Stock Is Born The trading app Robinhood is known for powering the rise of so-called meme stocks—such as GameStop and AMC—that skyrocketed earlier this year, not necessarily because of business fundamentals, but because social media users found them to be amusing. Even before its IPO last week, investors were wondering: Will Robinhood itself be a meme stock?  So far, the answer appears to be yes. After taking a dip on its first day of trading, Robinhood's stock has shot up 100% this week, including a 50% gain yesterday. Trading was so vociferous that the stock had to be halted several times yesterday morning for Wall Street to catch its breath.  Are retail investors behind the surge?  For the second time in this story, the answer appears to be yes. Here's some evidence: Total retail volume for Robinhood increased about 10x on Tuesday from the previous day. Robinhood was the No. 1 stock mentioned on Reddit's WallStreetBets forum, and was also the most traded stock on Fidelity. Buy orders for Robinhood have nearly doubled those for another meme stock, AMC. Another factor: This week, traders could start placing options on Robinhood's stock, which allows investors to speculate on whether a stock will go up or down rather than buying actual equity in the company. Increased options activity has been a hallmark of meme stock mania, and accounted for 46% of Robinhood's revenue in 2020. There might be some method to the madness: Cathie Wood's investment firm ARK Invest, which has placed bullish bets on Tesla and other high-growth tech companies, increased its position in Robinhood on Tuesday. Analysts think retail traders could be taking their cue from their stock oracle, Cathie.   Bottom line: Robinhood will ride or die with individual traders...in more ways than one.  COVID Covid Sidesteps Parental Controls Last week, almost 72,000 children under the age of 18 were infected with Covid-19, an 84% jump from the previous week, per the American Academy of Pediatrics. As kids head back to school to learn whatever the newest kind of division is, everyone from the Arkansas governor to pediatric experts is worried about keeping them safe. Here's what we know about kids and the virus: Roughly 10.9 million of the 25 million US children aged 12–17 have been at least partially vaccinated, per the CDC. Kids under the age of 12 are not yet eligible for any of the vaccines authorized in the US. Current trials for young kids won't finish up until late fall, well after school has started. Some states, like Florida, have reported a surge in serious cases among younger patients. But severe illness from Covid is still pretty rare among children, making up about 1.3%–3.5% of hospitalizations during the pandemic. Looking ahead...Dr. Fauci said that by Q1 2022 we'll have enough data to begin vaccinating kids of all ages. GIG ECONOMY Uber, Lyft Bring a Little Cali to Massachusetts We're talking labor fights, not tacos, unfortunately. A coalition of gig economy companies including Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and Instacart filed a ballot proposal that would keep their drivers classified as "independent contractors" rather than "employees." That means gig workers in MA wouldn't be entitled to minimum wage, overtime, paid sick days, and other standard employee benefits. However, the proposal fills in some of those gaps, promising pre-tip rates of $18 per hour, earned sick days, and more. Opponents don't think extra toppings make up for sub-par froyo. "It's going to take away [gig companies'] responsibilities under Massachusetts law and substitute these fake benefits," labor attorney Shannon Liss-Riordan told the NYT. This is basically a rerun of The OC Gig economies backed a similar measure, Prop 22, in California last year. It passed after the companies spent more than $205 million promoting it—a record sum for a California ballot measure. Looking ahead...Big Gig has set up lobbying groups in five additional states in the last few months to challenge worker reclassification attempts that threaten their business models. SPONSORED BY VANGUARD Embrace an Active Lifestyle Don't worry, we aren't here to tell you to go for a run—too humid for that anyway. We're talking about Active Bond Funds.  Why are we talking about Active Fixed Income products? They can help you add value to your portfolio by offering an opportunity for outperformance. Plus, actively managed fixed income products can help meet your current needs and longer term objectives as part of a balanced portfolio. Oh, and one more thing. Like when choosing any investments, you should consider the cost of your Active Bond Funds. Vanguard investors are Vanguard's owners, which means their interests are...your interests. It also means long-term perspective, smart risk-taking, and a focus on lowering investment costs, so you keep more of your returns.  Learn more about Active Fixed Income here.  GRAB BAG Key Performance Indicators Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Stat: Rihanna is officially a billionaire, according to Forbes, and the richest female musician in the world. But only a small percentage of her $1.7 billion fortune can be attributed to your 16,000 plays of "SOS." An estimated $1.4 billion comes from her makeup company, Fenty Beauty, and $270 million from Savage x Fenty, her lingerie brand. Maybe that's why she's in no rush to release R9... Quote: "Video killed the radio star." 40 years ago this week, MTV debuted with the iconic hook by The Buggles. Here's a video of the first two hours of the network, which includes some incredible music. Read: Beauty and solace in the abandoned worlds of Roblox. (Pioneer Works) SPORTS She's a Runner, She's a Track World Record Holder Gallo Images/Getty Images Olympic track stars are running like they're members of the Cullen family, shattering world records in Tokyo this week. Both the men's and women's 400m hurdles are considered among the best races ever run. So is it the track? It's definitely bouncy. Mondo, the track maker, took three years to develop it and finished installing the $1.5 million semi-vulcanized masterpiece in November 2019. The track mimics the shock absorption of a trampoline, and running on it has been described by US sprinter Ronnie Baker as "like I'm walking on clouds." Speaking of clouds: Some runners are lacing up their controversial Nike "super spikes," a super light shoe containing super responsive foam. Karsten Warholm, the Norwegian gold medalist and record holder in men's 400m hurdles, called BS when his opponent Rai Benjamin of the US, who received silver and also broke the previous world record, used the shoes this week. Bottom line: While the Olympics represent the best of the best, the athletes are running on the right track at the right time with the right shoes. WHAT ELSE IS BREWING Facebook shut down the accounts of two NYU researchers looking into political ads and misinformation on the platform, accusing them of "unauthorized scraping." In response, some lawmakers criticized the company.  CVS and Walgreens said they're seeing a bump in vaccinations after a slowdown in May and June.  TikTok is testing a Stories-like feature. Two words: pasta purse. Olympics links NBC's TV viewership for the Olympics is down 45% from the Rio games in 2016. Americans April Ross and Alix Klineman advanced to the finals of the beach volleyball event. Equestrian riders say that a life-sized statue of a sumo wrestler has been spooking horses. SPONSORED BY MIZZEN+MAIN Hold my calls, quick-dry work polos are on the line. As temps rise, your shirt should dry out. Mizzen+Main's new drirelease Performance Polo actively draws sweat away from your body to keep you dry and lookin' fly. Use code MORNINGBREW to get $25 off a regularly priced purchase of $125 or more. BREW'S BETS Don't try this at home: Or do, because it looks like a lot of fun. Here's our No. 1 choice for the next Olympic sport. What we're reading: Peep Brew's Bookshelf for a list of all the books we've recommended to readers over the past year. Let's get loud: From our friends at the geopolitics newsletter Signal comes a recommendation for the podcast Loud, which charts the history of Reggaeton music. GAMES The Puzzle Section Brew Mini: Video may have killed the radio star, but it did not kill crosswords. Play our Mini here. Three Headlines and a Lie Three of these news headlines are real and one is as fake as a Dior bag on Canal Street. Can you guess the odd one out?  "Tech-forward Domino's plans to launch "'Pizza Metaverse'" "Visitors to US Titanic museum injured by replica iceberg" "Hog heaven: China builds pig hotels for better biosecurity" "When a shower door sliced my hands open, I used $23,000 from renters insurance to pay off my student loans—and now I'm debt-free" SHARE THE BREW We think you should share the Brew. Not only is it a smart thing to do for your friends, it's also the smartest way to get showered in free Brew swag and exclusive content. Your referral count: 0 Click to Share Or copy & paste your referral link to others: morningbrew.com/daily/r/?kid=d7b71bd7 ANSWER Domino's isn't launching a Pizza Metaverse...yet Written by Jamie Wilde, Matty Merritt, and Neal Freyman Illustrations & graphics by Francis Scialabba Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up here. WANT MORE BREW?   Retail newsletter → Retail Brew   Tech newsletter → Emerging Tech Brew   Marketing newsletter → Marketing Brew   Recommendations newsletter → Sidekick   Business podcasts → Business Casual and Founder's Journal ADVERTISE // CAREERS // SHOP // FAQ Update your email preferences or unsubscribe here. View our privacy policy here. Copyright © 2021 Morning Brew. All rights reserved. 22 W 19th St, 8th Floor, New York, NY 10011